Academy · Lesson 2 of 5
Portra Warmth
The gentle film look — warm, soft, believable.
What this lesson teaches
- Warm white balance sells golden light
- Negative contrast + lifted shadows = the soft film curve
- Muted saturation keeps warmth from turning orange
The 3 stages you rebuild
- 1. White balance — Set the temperature and tint first — every colour decision depends on it.
- 2. Exposure & tone — Brightness, contrast and the tonal extremes. Watch the highlights and blacks.
- 3. Presence & colour — Clarity, dehaze and saturation give the look its intensity — restraint wins.
The target look, in numbers
Exposure +0.1 EV · Contrast −4 · Highlights −22 · Shadows +22 · Vibrance +18 · Saturation −4 · 6200 K · 5-point curve · HSL 4 bands · split tone.
You are not shown these while playing — the exercise is to reach them by eye and find out how close you got. The same values can be opened in the Studio afterwards.
← Academy
3 stages · hints cost points · precision earns stars